A Master Gardener's Journal

Want to save time, money and water? Plan ahead for this year’s gardening season by exploring xeriscape-- a combination of seven gardening principles that reduce water consumption and protect the environment while creating a lush, colorful and creative landscape.

I know what you’re thinking, but xeriscaping is not dull and boring. And it doesn’t mean no water, but rather water applied in controlled amounts and locations. Although it was originally developed for drought-afflicted areas, xeriscape principles can benefit any landscape, not just desert-like climates. Xeriscaping will allow you to have a lower water bill and a beautiful garden filled with lush flowers.

Consider these seven xeriscape principles:

Planning and Design: Walk around your property to get a feel for the land. Notice the natural micro-climates in different spots…wet, dry, warm, cool, shady and sunny areas. Look for ways to maximize the use of natural precipitation. Group plants with similar water needs together. If you love water hogs like cardinal flower and obedient plant, put them in that wet area of your yard. Place shrubs and trees so that they provide natural heating and cooling for your home.

Soil improvement: Improve your soil with shredded leaves, peat moss and/or compost to feed the soil, improve soil texture and help retain water.
Appropriate plant selection: Add some drought resistant plants to your landscape. Try some native plants—they’re easy to grow. Make sure you put the right plant in the right place by choosing plants that will thrive in your hardiness zone and by putting sun-lovers in a sunny area and shade-lovers in a shady area.

Practical turf areas: Reduce the size of your lawn as much as possible. Plan a few small turf areas for open space and outdoor activities. Use water-saving grass species adapted to your area when you plant new turf or reseed your lawn.

Efficient irrigation: Use soaker hoses or drip irrigation systems. They deliver water right to the roots at a slow rate, which encourages absorption and reduces pooling and erosion.

Use of mulches: Put down two to three inches of mulch to keep the soil cool and moist, prevent soil erosion and block out weeds. The best mulch to use is shredded leaves or compost, because they slowly become part of the soil and feed your plants, eliminating the need for chemical fertilizers.

Appropriate maintenance: Mow, weed, prune and fertilize properly. Cut grass only to three inches—no lower. Weeds compete with your plants for water, so remove them ASAP (if any weeds manage to come up through the mulch, that is). Never fertilize during a dry spell—it will just further stress your plants. Or use compost and shredded leaf mulch instead of fertilizer to feed the soil.

Still not convinced? Check out the benefits you will enjoy by using xeriscape principles…

Watering requirements will be lower, and can be met with simple irrigation systems. Xeriscaping can reduce landscape water use by 50 - 75%. (Did you know that over 50% of residential water use is for landscape and lawns? And that adds up to a nice reduction in your monthly water bill.)

Other than occasional pruning and weeding, maintenance will be minimal.
Healthy organic soil provides sufficient nutrients for native plants, so there’s no need for chemical supplements. This means you save money and the environment.

Xeriscaping can raise property values which more than offset the cost of installation. It also protects your landscaping investment by drought-proofing it.

Fuel consumption from gas mowers is minimized or eliminated with minimal turf areas. Small turf areas can be easily maintained with a reel mower.

Using native plants, shrubs and trees creates a friendly habitat for local wildlife, which means you get to enjoy birds, bees and butterflies and they get to enjoy you.

Want to get started? Peruse these websites:

Create a Drought Resistant Landscape

Drought-resistant Plants

Native Plants

For detailed information about xeriscaping, go to Xeriscape Colorado

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

UPCOMING MASTER GARDENERS EVENTS

Registration required for all events. Please call 610-690-2655 for more information or visit our website

by Joe Daniels, Delaware County Master Gardener

Seed and plant catalogs can still be ordered to assist in your selection of plants for the garden.

This is a good time to continue your review of garden books and magazines.

Check notes from last year to see what you want to do the same and what should be changed.

Chart vegetable and flower gardens on graph paper. This will help in rotation of vegetables from last year and assist in knowing how many of each plant will be needed.

Bulbs
The premature emergence of spring bulbs can sometimes be delayed by watering the soil and applying a layer of organic mulch.

Start tuberous begonias in late February or early March.

Check stored summer bulbs, tubers and corms. Discard any with soft spots or disease.

Small Fruits
Fertilize grapes and blueberries.

Remove dead and infested wood and mummified fruit from grapes and blueberries.

Fruit Trees
This is a good time to prune, as long as it is not done right before a heavy freeze. Best time to prune apples.

Peach and nectarine trees can be pruned heavily, removing half of last year's growth to produce new shoots for next year's crop.

Trees and Shrubs
Most ornamental trees can be pruned in late February, except maple, birch and walnut.

Prune summer flowering trees and shrubs now. Select relatively warm days in late February or early March where the weather is predicted to not be very cold for a few days.

Enjoy this time to observe and view the bare look of your garden for ideas as what to add or eliminate. Start exercising--you know those backs and knees will be getting a work out in the next few months. Relax and enjoy the peacefulness and quiet of the winter garden to reflect on the season to come.

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

UPCOMING MASTER GARDENERS EVENTS

Registration required for all events. Please call 610-690-2655 for more information or visit our website

Delaware County Master Gardeners play an important role in caring for the environment by volunteering our time and energy to teach others how to be successful as well as environmentally friendly gardeners. Penn State University’s Cooperative Extension gave us extensive horticultural training and then turned all one hundred and twenty two of us loose to help home gardeners in our communities. And do we help!

We teach a variety of classes and workshops, design and maintain the Delaware County Cooperative Extension display gardens at Smedley Park, assist in the Taylor Arboretum Greenhouse Project, provide Horticultural Therapy for a variety of institutions, plan and present Arbor Day activities, answer gardening questions called to the Cooperative Extension’s “hort line”, maintain gardens at Ridley Creek State Park and write this gardening blog for the Philadelphia Inquirer. But our biggest event of the year is the Home Gardeners School.

This year’s Home Gardeners School is scheduled for Saturday, March 29 at Neumann College in Aston, PA. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from outstanding speakers--Longwood educator Dan Long, Morris Arboretum’s Shelley Dillard, Philadelphia Zoo Plant Curator Marty Kromer and Brandywine Conservancy Horticultural Director Mark Gormel.

The day-long program includes a continental breakfast, buffet lunch and a tour of the historic 150 year old Neumann College private garden, which is only open to the public for the day of the workshop. The garden features walking paths, a labyrinth, shrines, native plants, massive old-growth trees, and an innovative solar-powered fountain.

Of course, no day is complete without a little plant-shopping. Be sure to browse our popular Marketplace, where you’ll find green treasures at our Master Gardener Plant Sale as well as a variety of plant-related items.

So allow us to jump-start your spring! Plan now to attend. You may even find a new friend—who can resist chatting with other passionate gardeners? Call 610-690-2655 for more details or email: lrb16@psu.edu. Information is also available on the Master Gardener website

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

UPCOMING MASTER GARDENERS EVENTS

Registration required for all events. Please call 610-690-2655 for more information or visit our website

Make yourself and the local wildlife happy this year—plant a few viburnums. Viburnums are amazing! They’re one of our most versatile groups of native ornamental shrubs and small trees. But good luck trying to narrow down your choices--there are over 150 species to select from, and that’s not counting cultivars! Lucky for us, Penn State created a guide that compares viburnum characteristics for specific landscape needs.

Viburnums charm us with fragrant flowers, colorful and wildlife-friendly fruit and interesting structure and textures. Some viburnums are deciduous with outstanding fall color--others are semi-evergreen or evergreen and provide winter interest. As far as I’m concerned, what makes them irresistible is that they’re easily maintained, adaptable to sun or shade and practically pest free—even deer resistant!

Since viburnums range in height from two to thirty feet, you’re sure to find a size that’s perfect for your landscape. If color coordination is uppermost in your mind, you can choose from brightly colored yellow, orange, red, pink, blue or black fruits and red, scarlet or purple fall leaf color. Their blooms range from creamy white to pink and are appealing to butterflies.

Is shape important to you? No problem—viburnums (depending on the species) grow as small trees and dense or loose shrubs. Choose from deciduous (loses its leaves in the fall), evergreen or semi-evergreen viburnums. Foliage choices range from glossy green to dull, dark green, and textures that are velvety to thick and leathery.

Many (but not all) viburnums grow one to two feet per year, so you won’t have to wait forever for them to become a nice size. Still undecided? Take a look for yourself at Cornell University's web page on Viburnum Fact Sheet and Clemson University's Viburnum Species.

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

UPCOMING MASTER GARDENERS EVENTS

Registration required for all events. Please call 610-690-2655 for more information or visit our website

Gardeners don’t die, they just toil away. Wait a minute—we don’t have to work all that hard. There’s an easy way to garden--a way that allows us to indulge our passion for a much longer time. It just takes a little adapting to the changes we experience in our baby boomer bodies.

Luckily, businesses are busy coming up with ways to help us. Lightweight ergonomic tools, protective gloves, knee pads and wrist braces, padded garden stools, dollies, small garden carts, soaker hoses and drip irrigation systems are available to make gardening easier--take advantage of them!

Here are some more helpful tips to keep you gardening well into the future:

Conserve energy—get someone else to do the heavy work. How about that teen-aged neighbor? And while you’re working side by side, grab the chance to grow a love for gardening in your young helper.

Take regular breaks! Sit down with a glass of herbal tea and enjoy the birds, bees and butterflies.

Work during the cooler parts of the day. Why work in the blazing sun if you don’t have to?

Drink adequate fluids. If you feel dizzy or weak when you stand up, you’re probably a quart low on fluids.

Let shredded leaf mulch, soaker hoses and compost do the work of taking care of your plants and soil.

Wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses for protection from the sun’s rays.

Hang a bird feeder and set up a bird bath to encourage birds to take up residence in your garden to control insect pests. If you grow plants that supply your new friends with seeds and berries, they’ll love coming to your garden.

Choose plants wisely. Plant perennials that take care of themselves, like coreopsis, daylilies. phlox and sedum. Add some native plants—they thrive without care because they belong in our area. Include drought-tolerant plants, too. Make sure you choose plant varieties with good disease and pest-resistance.

Grow shrubs instead of hedges that need constant trimming and shaping.

Use ground covers to replace lawn. Not only will it give you a break, it’ll give the environment a break too (no need for fertilizers or gas lawn mowers).

Chuck that hard to handle wheelbarrow. Use a small garden cart with pneumatic wheels to carry everything to, around and from the garden. Use a dolly for heavy bags of mulch.

Don't do any one activity for too long a time. Shift positions, change hands and take frequent rest breaks.

Grow plants on arbors, pergolas, obelisks, trellises and walls so you don’t have to kneel on the ground.

Protect your back. Bend from the hips—not the waist. Or even better, squat down and let your legs do the lifting. And forget about twisting your body to reach something.

Want a new bed but can’t handle digging? Start it in spring or summer by covering the ground with newspaper (six to eight sheets thick). Water the newspaper. Then place landscape fabric on top of the newspaper and dump about six inches of leaf mulch on the fabric. Water well. By next spring, you’ll have a new bed with no digging!

Use all the time you saved buy using these tips to lounge in your hammock and enjoy the garden.

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

UPCOMING MASTER GARDENERS EVENTS

Registration required for all events. Please call 610-690-2655 for more information or visit our website